Quote:
Originally Posted by Delphinus
If you have a high efficiency furnace one intermediary or workaround step you can take to deal with excessive humidity is to run your furnace fan on 24/7. I don't recommend this on a non-high-eff furnace - I tried it at my old house and the sticker shock on the next month's utility bill was pretty bad. The high efficiency furnaces have DC motor drives though, so they use a fraction of the electrical draw that their AC counterparts do. I wish I had known this when selecting a furnace. The home builder described the difference to me as something like 5% added efficiency on the combustion and in hindsight I should have done more homework than just taking the builder's word for things.
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FYI: as of January of this year, you cannot buy a mid eff furnace. They are all 90% or better with the top of the line being 98%. Hi efficient does not mean ecm blower (variable dc) That is an add on and an expensive one but well worth it in long term cost and comfort.
All housed built since about 1975 on should have a fresh air pipe of 4" or better piped right into the return air of the furnace. Running your furnace fan full time will draw air and ventilate and cost about $30 a month (ac 1/2hp blower) in electricity plus the cost of energy to heat that added air. It doesn't take long to add up to the costs of an HRV. An HRV will cost money to run also. Cheaper than the alternative and designed for the job. Most can be wired to run on a dehumidistat so it runs when needed.